Bharat Bhise HNA analyst and industry expert in cybersecurity gave a riveting speech at a tech event which I was attending recently about the importance for small businesses to protect themselves with security software for their IT infrastructure and their network hardware. The number of business owners who have as yet failed to invest sufficiently in this software or who are running dated and inefficient software is very alarming, and it is difficult to understand why there are so many who have failed to install this software in their business. If you fall into this category and you don’t have up to date security software in your business, here is why it is so necessary.
Hacks on the Rise
Many of you will have heard about the hacks on companies like Marriott hotels and Macys, but you’d be foolish to think that a cyberattack is only ever aimed at big business. In fact more and more small businesses are falling victim to these kind of attacks, and it is easy to see why this is rising. Cyber attackers know that small businesses are unlikely to have good security software, or any for that matter, and this makes their lives much easier. Think of an attack on a small business the difference between robbing a pick or pickpocketing, the former may yield more plunder but ultimately there is massive risk attached to it, the latter however can be done over and over again without much fear of getting caught.
The Damage
The damage is going to be huge if you end up getting hacked and there are a number of factors behind why this would be bad for your business. First of all there will be the lost trade as your systems are down, lost working hours which the business has to pay staff for and the lost sales as a result. Then you are going to have to reset the system and deal with any viruses or backdoors which have been left behind, which also comes at a cost, and finally you will have caused untold damage to your reputation amongst customers once word gets around that you were unable to properly protect their sensitive information. When you consider just how much financial damage an attack can cause to your business, the cost of that security software suddenly looks much more reasonable.
Online Rankings
Your online reputation is of great importance if you are looking to bring in more customers and so too is your search engine rankings. If you are hacked then this is going to take a big hit and the search engine crawlers will put a black mark next to your company’s website owing to the attack. This could see any work which you have done on marketing or SEO go down the pan, and you will also damage the amount of conversions that you make from organic search.
There is no point in running this risk as a business, pay the money and install the necessary software.
